At a time when we are looking to celebrate racial and sexual equality one would expect Alice Coachman’s name to be one that many would be aware of, but unfortunately that is not the case. There are though some who know her name, and more importantly her legacy.
Alice was the fifth born child of Fred and Evelyn Coachman’s ten children, and came into the world on November 9, 1923, in Albany, Georgia in the USA. Albany at the time of her birth was deeply segregated.
After watching the boys taking part in an Athletics meeting, Alice became interested in all things to do with jumping. She went to a local gym but was turned away. She not only faced barriers because of the colour of her skin, but also because she was female, and at that time there was widespread opposition to women participating in sports.
Despite this she was undeterred and improvised ways that she could experience the joy that jumping brought to her. She would run shoeless along the dirt roads near her home and used homemade equipment to practice her jumping. She used ropes and sticks to create her own jumping challenges.
She clearly had a talent and a passion for sports. She took part in athletics, played baseball and softball with the boys as a youngster. However her father did not approve. He believed her behaviour to be unladylike and sometimes whipped her for pursuing such pursuits. At this time she had her own doubts about pursuing the thing she loved, and considered changing direction and taking up dance, or becoming a musician, having been inspired by the child actress Shirley Temple.
In life we all find there are those who are quick to tear us down and shatter our dreams, but there are also those who offer encouragement when it is needed. Alice found such encouragement from her Aunt and also her fifth grade teacher, Cora Bailey at Monroe Street Elementary School. Her parents were still unsure about their daughter pursuing such physical activities.
In 1938 Alice enrolled at Madison High School where not surprisingly she joined the Athletics team. Here she fell under the supervision of Harry E. Lash who helped develop her potential. Within a year she had drawn the attention of the Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama. Aged 16 she joined the Tuskegee Preparatory School on a scholarship. However the scholarship on offer was a long way from what we know today as a scholarship. Alice was required to work while studying and training. Her work included cleaning and maintaining the sports facilities, and when required mending the team uniforms. Ironically in 1946 she graduated with a degree in dressmaking, so maybe the scholarship did in fact assist her in achieving her goal.
She competed for the institute’s high school and college teams, and later also for Albany State College, which is now the Albany State University. Here she received a B.S. in Home Economics with a minor in science. On leaving in 1949 she became a teacher and track-and-field instructor.
It was on the Athletics track that she excelled. While at Tuskegee she broke both the college and National high jump records while competing barefoot. It has been said that her jumping style was unusual, and has been described as ‘a combination of straight jumping and western roll.’ She won the Amateur Athletic Union high jump championship 10 consecutive times from 1939 to 1948, and the Union’s 50-metre outdoor title from 1943 to 1947. She also won national championships in the 100-metre dash and the 4×100-metre relay.
During that period of dominance she was unable to attend the Olympic Games due to World War II, and the 1940 and 1944 Olympic Games not taking place. When the War ended it was announced that the Olympic Games would resume in 1948, in London. Alice qualified for the US Olympic team with a high jump of 162.56cm (5 feet 4 inches) and at the same time broke the previous 16-year-old record by 1.9cm, or three quarters of an inch.
In the final in London, held at Wembley Stadium Alice cleared 1.68 m (5 ft 6⅛ in) on her first attempt. Her nearest rival, Great Britain’s Dorothy Tyler, matched her jump, but only on her second attempt. This handed the Gold medal to Alice Coachman, who was the only female American athlete to win gold in 1948. She also became the first Black woman to win an Olympic Gold medal, which she received from the King, George VI.
She was feted when she returned to the USA. She met President Harry Truman and former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and was honoured with parades from Atlanta to Albany. She was even thrown a party by the great Jazz musician Count Basie.
Four years later in 1952 she became the first African-American woman to endorse an international product. She was signed as a spokesperson by the Coca-Cola Company, and was featured on billboards alongside the 1936 Olympic Gold medal winner Jesse Owens. While In her hometown, Alice Avenue, and Coachman Elementary School were named in her honour.
The 1948 London Olympics would be her only Olympic appearance, and at 24 years of age her Athletics career came to an end. She still kept herself busy raising a family, becoming an elementary and high school teacher, as well as creating the Alice Coachman Track and Field Foundation whose aim was to aid young athletes and former competitors in financial need.
After retirement she faded away from the public eye, and also a nation’s conscience. When Wilma Rudolph won gold in Rome in 1960 many hailed her as the first Black American to win Gold at the Olympic Games, but Alice was the first. (Inspirational Athletes -1)
“Go anyplace and people will tell you Wilma Rudolph was the first black woman to win a medal — it’s not true,” she was reported as saying in an interview with The Birmingham News in 1997, “She came on the scene 12 years later. But she was on television.”
Recognition of Alice’s achievement came much later in life. In 1975 she was inducted to the USA Track and Field Hall of fame and in 1979 was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame. During the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Alice was named as one of the 100 greatest Olympians. In 2002, she was designated a Women’s History Month Honoree by the National Women’s History Project, and in 2004 was inducted into the the United States Olympic Hall of Fame.
Probably most important of all though she has in recent times been credited for not only breaking down barriers for women in sport, but also for Black women in sport. If anyone doubts this statement, in the USA black women have in recent times made up a majority of the US women’s Olympic track and field team.
“I think I opened the gate for all of them,” she is reported to have said.. “Whether they think that or not, they should be grateful to someone in the black race who was able to do these things.”
Alice Coachman passed away in July 2014 at the age of 90.
